måndag 14 juni 2010

Ett experiment - läs!

Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. Heplayed six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx 2thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way towork. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musicianplaying. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and thenhurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money inthe till and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked athis watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A3 year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly, asthe kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushedhard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time.This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent,without exception, forced them to move on.

45 minutes:

The musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while.About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace.He collected $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No oneapplauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the bestmusicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces everwritten, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days beforeJoshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This actually happened. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metrostation was organized by the Washington Post as part of a socialexperiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. Thequestions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriatehour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do werecognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the bestmusicians in the world playing some of the finest music ever written,with one of the most beautiful instruments .....

How many other things are we missing?

Here's a short video of the event,take a look for yourself, one woman does reconize him.